Daily Eats

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You Are What You Eat

In the long-running sitcom “Cheers,” the barfly/know-it-all Cliff Clavin was famous for once having spotted a potato chip that bore an uncanny resemblance to Richard Nixon. (Observed the less-than-impressed Carla: “Show me one that doesn’t.”)

Finding anthropomorphic qualities in food is the big idea behind MoFA, The Museum of Food Anomalies, an online collection of edible oddities. Scary faces and body parts make up the bulk of the collection, but visitors are also treated to an array of mutant vegetables, satanic tomatoes and typographically-inclined spuds. And, of course, what exhibit would be complete without at least one Virgin Mary sighting?

In many ways, the most unsettling part of the collection lies in the surprising presence of corporate identities. There’s an onion ring that freakishly resembles the QuickTime logo and a tomato that mimics Apple Computer’s. Once America’s marketing geniuses discover that food can be molded as part of a stealth advertising effort, can any meal be safe from corporate sponsorship?